Manal and Alaa's bit bucket

A few days ago a certain number of Coptic activists from both Egypt and the Diaspora have adopted the design of a Coptic flag that underlines the Egyptian and Christian identities of the Copts. Yet, before certain people embark on accusing us of causing sectarian tensions, or of being the mouthpieces of Zionism, Imperialism, Crusaders, and all these meaningless accusations, we have decided to make our dear readers aware of the meaning of this flag and of the motive behind it.

Flags and Emblems:
It is well known that any group has the right to create an emblem or a flag that represents it and which would be its window on the world.

By: Sameh Fawzy

Khaled Fahmi, a graduate of the American University in Cairo and holder of a doctorate in modern history from Oxford University, is currently an assistant professor at New York University. As Egypt celebrates 200 years since Mohamed Ali ruled, an occasion honoured by a three-day seminar last week in Cairo and Alexandria, Watani Forum hosted Dr Fahmi to speak on Mohamed Ali as founder of modern Egypt.

Rereading Mohamed Ali
Dr Fahmi began by saying that he had his own reservations about the common perception that Mohamed Ali was the founder of modern Egypt. That would imply he had an ambitious plan to develop the country, and if that were true then why did the plan fail?

A quick answer says that the West did not allow Egypt to develop.

This guy's finger says it all I guess

A former FBI translator failed on Monday to persuade the Supreme Court to revive her lawsuit alleging she was fired for reporting possible wrongdoing by other linguists involved in counterterrorism investigations.

Edmonds, 32, who was hired after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and fired in March 2002 claimed the FBI terminated her contract after she complained about the quality of translations of terrorism-related wiretaps and had reported that another translator was leaking information to targets of investigations.
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Well, how serious can this be?
Let's see what happened in a similar case in Europe:

Ali Uthman, a Moroccan translator for the government in the Netherlands was sentenced today to 8 years in jail for leaking information to suspected terrorists.

Last month, Islamic radicals threatened to kill actor Omar Sharif after he praised his role as St. Peter in an Italian TV film. While this incident garnered a modicum of media attention, the mainstream media has paid little notice to the broader trend of which this incident is only a small part: Radical Muslims have been threatening -- and sometimes killing -- those whose speech has allegedly offended Islam. Ever since the Satanic Verses incident, they have been systematically extending this war against free speech into the West. Daveed's new article --linked below -- documents that we in the West haven't always been vigilant about standing behind speech rights, and calls for us to do better.

To read Daveed’s article click here
Or here

You can also Watch Submission part 1, a film shot by Theo Van Gogh who was a Dutch film director and columnist, On November 2nd, 2004, Theo van Gogh was murdered east of Amsterdam while he was cycling to his work.

The Daily Times of Pakistan


By Ali Waqar LAHORE: A Christian student has filed a constitutional writ petition to the Lahore High Court (LHC) for instant action, under Section 151 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), against the policy of awarding 20 additional marks to a Muslim hafiz-e-Quran (who has learnt the Quran by heart) candidate for admission in the MBBS and others, saying that it was discrimination against minority students and a violation of fundamental rights granted by the Constitution of Pakistan.

The petition, which is the first of its kind, has demanded the LHC either abolish the policy or make a parallel policy of awarding 20 additional marks to minority students for MBBS admission on the basis of their religious knowledge/study.

Qandeel, a Christian and daughter of Benjamin Robert Sultan, filed the petition through her counsel Rana Aamir Iftikhar and Waseem Ahmed Shahzad against the King Edward Medical College principal, who is also the Admissions Board chairman, and the Punjab Health Department.

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Christians have shrunk to less than 1.7 percent of the population in the Palestinian areas. “Tens of thousands have abandoned their holy sites and ancestral properties to live abroad, while those who remain do so as a beleaguered and dwindling minority,"

"Their plight is, in part, attributable to the adoption of Muslim religious law (sharia) in the constitution of the Palestinian Authority.


The radicalization of Palestinian Muslim communities under the PA is becoming an increasingly dangerous threat to Christian communities, to individuals, and to the mode of life they practice. The reversion to archaic and fundamentalist ideology advocated by Islamists, aggravated by economic and social hardship experienced by Middle Easte

Aghapy TV brings teachings of Coptic Church into homes of followers

By Vivian Salama

CAIRO: For Mounira Tadros, raising three children is a time consuming task. Every morning she must make the children - ages 10, 8 and 4 - breakfast, see to it that they are dressed, send them off to school and, in the evening, supervize their studies, cook dinner and put them to bed. To her, motherhood is a full-time job in itself.

"I really don't have time for much else," Tadros explained. "The kids have a set schedule and during school time, it is hard to stray from it."

There are several activities Tadros admits she tries to find time for - among them, sending the children to attend the Coptic liturgy at her church and Sunday school classes.

Macquarie University is pleased to offer a scholarship for International Students to study online in the Master of Arts program in Coptic Studies.

The scholarship aims at attracting an outstanding student from around the world to the study of Egyptian Christianity and the Coptic language. It is awarded on the basis of academic merit and covers international tuition fees for study in the M.A. in Coptic Studies degree (total value: AUS$ 18,400).

Coptic Studies are offered by Macquarie University as an independent M.A. degree by coursework. This degree is unique in that it can be completed entirely by online study. Course materials, including lectures and lecture notes, are delivered to the students via the websites and via the elect

By Agence France Presse (AFP)

CAIRO: Egypt's Christian Coptic minority voiced concern over the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood Monday, after the still illegal Islamist opposition group made impressive gains in parliamentary elections. "I am sounding the bell to warn Egyptians, if the Muslim Brothers come to power, Egypt will be an Islamic state, like Iran or Sudan," prominent Coptic thinker Milad Hanna said.

The Brotherhood said it had won another 13 seats in the second phase of the three-stage polls.

In the outgoing People's Assembly, the movement commanded the support of just 15 MPs, all elected as independents.

"Had these elections been fair and transparent, maybe the Muslim Brothers would have won a majority," Hanna said, in reference to reports of widespread fraud, voter intimidation and violence from ruling party thugs.

The domination by President Hosni Mubarak's National Democratic Party is not at risk but it will for the first time have to face a substantial challenge in the People's Assembly if the Muslim Brothers make further gains.

"I was always friendly with the Muslim Brothers," said Hanna, 81.

By Heba Saleh in Cairo *

The priest in charge of a church in Imbaba, a poor area of Cairo, has spent 24 years trying to get the Egyptian authorities to allow him to tear down a wall and install a second exit from the building.

Not only does restricted access make his church a firetrap, but it also means that wedding parties and mourners heading for the condolences hall could find themselves colliding in the tiny lobby.

Egyptian law requires even the most minor alterations to church buildings to be approved by the authorities before they can go ahead. Restrictions also apply to the construction of new churches, which need a presidential decree.

Discrimination against the Coptic Christian minority was the main theme of the second International Coptic Conference on Egypt, held in Washington this week.

By SAAD EDDIN IBRAHIM

The Second International Coptic Conference, convening this week in Washington, comes amid Egypt's parliamentary elections and heightened American and international attention to the democratic advances in the Arab world's most populous country. Often overlooked is the fact that Egypt's population of nearly 75 million includes the Middle East's largest Christian minority, over seven million *, the vast majority of whom are members of the Coptic Orthodox Church and have in the last half-century experienced institutionalized discrimination that renders them little more than second-class citizens.

In an earlier era, during the three decades following the end of the First World War -- often referred to as the Arab liberal age -- Christians worked side by side with Muslims in opposition to British occupation and did, in fact, enjoy rights of citizenship that came close to that of their Muslim counterparts.